ALL-IRELAND LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP:WHEN ANDREW Thompson was invited down to Shannon from Westmeath's Wilson's Hospital School, he had no idea of what a long road he was about to travel.

The first club game for the then teenager was against Neath on a small tour to Wales, his last running in a try for Shannon in the All-Ireland League against UCD almost a year ago. Another season, another AIL trophy with Shannon’s name on it.

But the former Munster player, who had professional spells in France with Le Creusot Montchanin Bourgogne and later the Bedford Blues in England, has no plans to hang up his boots. The hamstring and back may still be giving some gip but Thompson’s hunger for Shannon and rugby still burns just as brightly as it did on his first venture south nine All-Ireland League winner’s medals ago.

Shannon rugby and coaching has been the basis for everything he has achieved with the club and at the higher level and that’s the way the club still see themselves.

“After 2000 we lost the legends (Anthony Foley, Mick Galwey, John Hayes),” he says. “They were getting more structured as professionals and there were more demands from Munster. Brian Rigney and Pat Murray were retiring. All these major players were going and we’d lots of young guys coming through. We had to reinvent ourselves.

“We went from a team in the mid-’90s that was forward orientated to having no pack, or rather mobile forwards. We’d a completely different team but a very good back line. We just couldn’t scrap with Buccaneers or ’Con.”

Soon after Shannon established themselves as AIL brand leaders by winning four in a row between 1994 and 1998 the new structures arrived, where the top teams went into an end-of-season play-off series. Again facing realities Shannon, embraced that where other clubs didn’t. They also realised there were four provinces that had to be fuelled with talent. The IRFU monopoly was there, the club attitude was “why fight it?”

“We needed to push players through to play for Munster. To do that they have to be successful with the club,” he says.

“It worked for everybody. I think that’s important. You work the system to your advantage. The IRFU were not going to disband four provinces.

“They have the academies now but young players also need to play senior rugby. They need to play against men over 15 stone, need to hit them and take hits and that’s the experience you get in a club.”

Almost from the start Shannon took on board the professional side of the game and worked it into club rugby. Niall O’Donovan came in at the early stage with Ray Coughlan, who had been working with the Ireland Under-21s.

The Shannon Under-20s had Foley, Hayes, Alan Quinlan and Thompson and cleaned up in that age group. At 21-years-old Foley was called up to the Ireland team.

“Yeah, Anthony Foley graced us with his presence that year. Then when rugby turned pro Declan Kidney became the Munster coach. He called us in and told us that we were all in it together. He said I’m not the first choice. I’m not the second choice. I’m the third-choice coach.

“After I came back from England I wanted one more go with Munster but Ronan O’Gara, Mike Mullins, Dutchy Holland were there. But I came back and broke my wrist with Shannon and it was then I said I’d throw in my lot with Shannon. It was the 2000-01 season.”

Since then the club has prospered and even the name has grown to carry significance. After the four in a row, the years between 1999 and 2001 were arid AIL seasons but three campaigns without success has now been the longest spell they have gone without winning a national league title. They came back to win again in 2002 before Ballymena muscled in the following year. But in the six seasons after that, Shannon have won the AIL four times, with a three-in-a-row between 2003-06.

“I think Shannon definitely means success,” says Thompson. “But that’s just a front. What ever trophies you win is just a front for what happens behind it. That’s the club. It’s a family club with certain core values that we try to pass on.

“One of those is giving back and we try to get senior players to help with underage players. Our work ethic is huge. We’ve won games where we weren’t as technically good but we have a serious mental and physical approach. Having the top six inches plus the physical is a huge advantage.”

Now 35-years-old, Thompson wants a few more years. He’s played outhalf, wing, fullback, centre. Ten AIL medals. There’s a target.